Numbers Series 5: A Number of Issues
by shadowglove
Summary: Sequel to Lil Red & The Big Bad Number. Number Five and Mrs. Kent have arrived and there are some tensions within the group. And not only that, but Chloe's connection to the crests is deepening, and more questions are popping up with no answer in sight.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/I Am Number Four.**

Sequel to: Little Red And The Big Bad Number.

Chapter 1/2

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"This place is amazing." Clark whispered, dropping their bags in awe as he looked all around the living room of Lucas' apartment.

"I know." Chloe smiled, pulling a strand of blonde hair behind her ear, unable to believe that Clark and Mrs. Kent were back, safe and sound. "Lucas's Cepan started it out and Lucas has kept renovating things and he has really great taste."

"Just don't tell him that." Lucy declared from where she sat on the sofa's armrest, eyeing Clark and his mother thoughtfully. "It'll go to his head and then I'll have to beat him to a bloody pulp to get his ego to be manageable again."

"Don't mind her." Lois smiled as she came towards them, shaking their hands in an awkward yet polite way. "It's very nice to meet the both of you. Chloe has told me so much about your family that I feel like I know you both myself."

"It's nice to meet you two as well." Martha smiled motherly down at Lois, before sending a smile in Lucy's direction before turning to Chloe. "Where's our host? I would like to thank him for taking us in."

Chloe bit her bottom lip, smile slipping. "I don't know. He was supposed to be my ride." Her gaze went to the clock. "He texted me before saying he was coming to my work but he never arrived even when my shift ended. And I know he's okay because my phone calls are going through but he's cutting them off."

Lois and Lucy shared looks.

"That's rude of him." Clark frowned. "If he's so busy he should just let you know. And how could he just stand you up like that? If he's your ride he should have let you know if he couldn't make it. If mom and I hadn't arrived out of the blue like that you would have been stranded."

That just wasn't like Lucas though, and that made Chloe look at her phone in worry. "Something must have come up unexpectedly."

"Speaking of unexpected." Lucy raised her chin. "What exactly are you two doing in Edge City? And how did you find Chloe? I don't care how rude this sounds, your appearing here and just stumbling upon Chloe is just too coincidental for me to buy."

"_Lucy_." Lois narrowed her eyes.

"I'm here because..." Clark cleared his throat. "I was following Chloe."

"_Huh_?" The blonde turned to him, confused. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know how to explain it." Clark admitted. "The other night, while I was asleep in my tent, I awoke for no reason with a pain in my heart and somehow I _saw_ you, Chloe. You were somewhere in danger, with this huge guy pressing a shard of glass to your throat. After that I had this _need_ to find you, and somehow I just _knew_ how to find you. It was like this invisible thread that drew me back."

"You _saw_ that?" Lois' eyes widened. "I knew she'd seen the Numbers, but-what if the others saw you too, Chlo? What if the remaining Numbers are making their way here too?"

Chloe's eyes widened as she brought her hand to her pendant.

"You're saying that really happened? Clark didn't just imagine you in danger?" Martha gasped, horrified. "Are you alright Chloe? What happened?"

"The bar I was working in was robbed, one of the robbers wanted to use me as a hostage." Chloe brought her free hand to her forehead. "Lucas saved my life."

"What are you doing here anyway, Chlo?" Clark went towards her, hands on her shoulders as he looked deep into her eyes. "Why aren't you in Smallville? What's going on?"

"They don't know?" Lucy suddenly asked.

"Know what?" Martha frowned in worry.

Lucy grinned, chin raising, strangely smugly pleased. "They don't know."

"You never told them?" Lois asked in surprise.

"Don't know _what_?" Clark's eyes narrowed. "_What_ weren't we told?"

Chloe sighed, taking in a deep breath. "There was something I didn't tell you that night in Smallville." She took Clark by the hand and led him to the sofa, sitting him down and starting from the beginning. Both Clark and Mrs. Kent were silent as they listened to her tell them about everything her mother had told her, and about how her father and her had had to flee Smallville to save her life. She told them about having to train with her cousins, told them about the attack in the caves, the disappearances of her father and mother, and finally told them about how they'd made it to Edge City and how they'd ended up living with Lucas Dunleavy.

"He let you stay all that time in seedy motels while he had a place like this?" Clark was obviously very annoyed.

"_Clark_." Mrs. Kent sighed. "I'm sure he had his reasons."

"He didn't know if he could trust us." Chloe was surprised to find herself defending Number Nine from Number Five.

"You're three girls." Clark protested. "He should have brought you here immediately. What's wrong with him?"

"What exactly are you implying?" Lucy wanted to know, eyes narrowed. "That because we're _girls_ and thus can't _possibly_ take care of ourselves that we should be receiving special treatment?"

"Other than the not being able to take care of yourselves part, _yes_." Clark replied as if this should be obvious.

"This is a _war_, Five." Lucy replied, jaw tense. "Only _fools_ take in strangers on good will."

"I would have." Clark glared at her. "_We_ would have. _Chloe_ would have. It's the _right _thing to do."

"No, it's the foolish thing to do." Lois surprised Chloe by getting into the argument as she leaned against the wall, arms folded over her chest. "We're not playing by the same rules anymore, this is _war_."

"Dunleavy's actions might have seemed totally asshole-ish at the time, but in hindsight it's things like that that make me feel safe with him and assured that I can trust him to make the _sensible_ decision should something happen." Lucy continued, before narrowing her eyes. "Not that I couldn't totally take care of myself and everyone else if the need appeared!" She pointed her finger to Clark threateningly. "If what I just said gets back to Nine you're in deep shit Five."

Lois and Chloe shared a look, extremely surprised to hear Lucy say something relatively nice about Lucas.

Lois pushed away from the wall and headed towards the eating area, mouthing something about going to look out one of the apartment's few windows to see if the Apocalypse had arrived.

The sound of the mechanical whirring of the locks opening in the door heralded Lucas' return, and Chloe rose from the sofa automatically, taking a couple of steps towards the entrance hallway, watching as Lucas entered, his motorcycle helmet tightly grasped in his hands. He looked up and seemed to pause when he saw her on the other end of the hallway, his eyes dark, his expression blank, before he finally began walking towards her in silence.

"Are you okay?" Chloe finally broke the silence, not sure about the tension she felt him emitting, but more worried than wary. "Why didn't you come to pick me up? Did something happen to you? Something happened while you were gone."

"I know." He murmured darkly, reaching her, gaze down on her, suddenly seeming so much taller. "I saw Number Five." His face remained terribly blank. "Figured you would want some time...alone."

"How unexpectedly considerate of you, Dunleavy." Lucy sneered.

"_Fuck_ _you_ Luce." Lucas snapped at her.

Lucy blinked in shock. "_Luce_?"

"That's no way to talk to a lady." Clark frowned, standing immediately, tense as he came towards them.

"_Clark_..." Martha stood.

"Who you calling a _lady_?" Lucy cried out, seeming far more insulted by that comment than Lucas' snap.

A muscle jumped in Lucas's cheek and his jaw clenched as he turned to face Clark. "I don't remember inviting you here."

Clark's eyes narrowed.

Chloe looked between the two of them, eyes wide, before getting in between, looping her arm around Lucas' as she stood next to him, facing Clark. "Clark, I want you to meet Lucas Dunleavy. Lucas, I want you to meet Clark Kent."

Clark eyed her arm looped around Lucas'.

Lucas did as well, eyes narrowed slightly in confusion before they went to her face in deep question.

She looked up at him questioningly as well, wondering what the confusion in his eyes was all about.

Raising an eyebrow, Lucas's lips twitched before pulling into a smirk as he turned that smug expression towards Clark. "My bad." Putting down his helmet on a side table, Lucas slung his arm around Chloe's body in a casual gesture, his smugness growing for some reason as he held out his other hand to Clark. "Lucas Dunleavy, Nine."

Clark eyed him before shaking his hand. "Clark Kent, Five."

Lucas' gaze slid from Clark to his mother behind him, his smile charming as he moved Chloe and himself passed Clark, his shoulder accidentally bumping into Clark's as they went passed him. "You must be Mrs. Kent, Chloe has told me so much about you. I hope you will feel at home here, you are amongst friends."

Mrs. Kent smiled at him, obviously charmed as Lucas kissed her hand gentlemanly. "Thank you."

Lucy and Lois shared freaked looks.

Chloe looked up at Lucas in shock to see this utter uncharacteristic side of him.

Since when had he become an utter charmer?

"I'm sorry to hear about your husband." Lucas continued to surprise. "Chloe wanted to go and spring him out but it was decided that it was a trap by the Mogs and we couldn't proceed with the plans."

Martha's eyes teared up as she nodded. "We were staying with people we thought we could trust but they gave us up to the Mogadorians. Jonathan bought us enough time to escape."

In his corner, Clarks hands were clasped, his head bowed.

"The Mogadorians must have killed those people when they realized Clark was gone, and it was blamed on Jonathan. They let him live in obvious hopes of drawing us out." Martha closed her eyes tightly against the thought. "I understand why...but..."

Chloe reached out and clasped her hand around the woman's, squeezing tightly, tears filling her eyes. "I understand."

Martha's eyes opened, a tear cascading down her cheek as she nodded. "I know you do."

She squeezed Chloe's hand tightly, both drawing comfort from the other, who understood being separated from their loved ones due to the Mogs.

Lucy's watch beeped and she made a face as she slid off of the sofa's armrest. "It's time."

Chloe nodded. "Give me a couple of minutes and I'll be ready." She turned to Lois. "Could you get Mrs. Kent comfortable in my room?"

"Sure." Lois nodded. "Lucy will move in with me so Five can have her room"

"When did I agree to this?" Lucy gasped.

"I couldn't possible take-." Martha began.

"Please Mrs. Kent, it's not a problem." Chloe smiled at her reassuringly.

"What about you?" Clark frowned, coming closer. "I can't sleep in a room if you're not going to have one."

"She's _gonna_ have a room." Lucas grinned, tightening his hold on her, insinuation quite obvious.

Chloe slapped his chest before turning to Clark with an embarrassed smile. "I'll be fine."

Clark's eyes narrowed further on them. "Chloe, I think you and I need to have a talk."

Lucas' eyes narrowed on him. "Got a problem, Five?"

"Yeah, _Nine_, I do." Clark glared. "I don't know you, and truthfully from what I've heard about you I don't like you-."

"Clark!" Mrs. Kent gasped.

"That's fine." Lucas sneered at him. "I don't like you either. The only reason why you're not spending the night on the street is because your mom's hot."

"_Excuse me_?" Clark snarled, coming towards him menacingly.

"You wanna start something, Five?" Lucas slipped in front of Chloe, eyes flashing. "I'm more than willing to-."

"Stop it you two!" Chloe got in the middle of them and pushed out with her hands, resting them on their chests to keep them apart. "Don't be such-!"

But she didn't get to finish her admonition because electricity gathered at her palms and shot into her body like lightning, searing her from within as the crests of Nine and Five suddenly lit up with that Lorien blue, the color radiating from the crests before seeping into her body and infusing her with a blue glow that spread from her body to Clark and Lucas. Like before when her life had been in danger, images flashed before her eyes.

In some underground place, One, Two, and Three's crests vibrated viciously, levitating slightly from their perches. The Mogadorians guarding them turned towards them, fear racing in their eyes as they raced to duck behind columns and boulders seconds before the crests erupted in a light so fierce the walls and boulders and such were beginning to give off steam. The guards covered their tightly closed eyes and faces with their hands, bringing the front of their shirts to cover the lower half of their faces.

To Chloe's right Six, Four, and the boy who could only be Sam Goode trekked through some sort of forest, looking injured and tired yet determined. Four and Six's crests began to vibrate and glow, levitating slightly from off of their chests. The light was strong, encompassing the three of them, and Sam had to turn his back on his companions due to the intensity unlike Four and Six, who seemed unfazed by the brightness, eyes widening as they looked around them. They turned and suddenly were gazing at Chloe. Four took a couple of steps towards her, mouth moving in speech and yet she was unable to hear what he was saying.

Suddenly movement to the left caused Chloe to look away from Four in time to see the image of Seven, once more in a different location, which this time happened to be a bathroom where the signs to not smoke and such were written in a language she couldn't read. He gazed down at his crest as it levitated slightly above his fist, eyes widening, before looking up at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. The older male seemed to see her in the reflection and turned to face her, mouthing something that just like with Four, she couldn't hear in the least bit.

Eight was surrounded by five Mogadorians coming in for the kill when her crest lit up, causing her attackers to roar as the blue began to burn at them with its intensity, their skin beginning to bubble slightly from the intense heat. As her captors collapsed to the ground, Eight looked up and seemed to catch sight of Chloe, sending her a huge grin before taking off running as far away from the Mogadorians as she could.

Suddenly the images broke, shattering like glass, and Chloe found her breath returning to her so violently she nearly blacked out. She reached for Lucas as her strength left her immediately, and wasn't surprised when he caught her before she fell, lifting her into his arms as she'd known he would.

"Red?" Lucas shifted her higher up his arms, taking her to the sofa and laying her down. "Red, are you okay?"

"Wh-what just h-happened?" Clark brought a hand to his stomach, looking a little queasy.

Now that she looked up at Lucas, he was pale and didn't look that well either.

Chloe wanted to ask him if he was okay, if Clark was as well, but she felt her eyelids closing on her in fatigue as sleep descended.

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**Review?**


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/I Am Number Four.

Sequel to: Little Red And The Big Bad Number.

Chapter 2/2

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"So you going to say it or are you going to make me do it?" Lucy wanted to know as she walked down the darkened street towards the 7-Eleven with Lois, who'd taken Chloe's place since the blonde's collapse in the living room. They'd saved the owner, Abed, from a robbery some weeks back and in gratitude he'd agreed to let them know if people were searching for them or if anything came up about the symbol they left with him, in return for protection whenever he needed it. When he'd called earlier and asked them to come over around this time when the shop closed, Lucy and Chloe had been worried and curious as to what he'd needed to tell them.

"What do you mean?" Lois wanted to know, hands in her pockets.

Lucy shook her head. "Don't play dumb."

The older Lane took in a deep breath before finally giving up her innocent act. "This doesn't change anything."

"It changes _everything_!" Lucy disagreed wholeheartedly. "This is _Five_ we're talking about! _And_ his mom! She loves them more than us!"

Lois frowned at her sister. "No she doesn't."

"Yes, she does." Lucy frowned darkly, folding her arms over her chest. "They're the family she chose, we're the family she's stuck with."

"Don't be such a brat." Lois shook her head. "We're all on the same team you know, and our enemies are the Mogs, not each other. Anyway, I doubt Chloe's going to start playing favorites. Sure, she might have been very close to them but she's very close with us as well. And you don't see Lucas letting then take her away from all of us, do you?"

Lucy frowned at that. "No, I guess not."

Lois nodded.

"Dunleavy called me _Luce_." Lucy murmured, hands going to her pockets, head lowered. "That's a _pet name_."

Lois turned an amused look in her sister's direction. "Annoyed?"

"Of course." She looked anything but, her lips twitching in a smile. "Who gave him the right to give me a pet name? I'll have to beat him up when we get home."

"Of course you will." Lois rolled her eyes, though she had to admit that she was happy and a little relieved to see her sister could be like this.

"Or, you know, I could be _really_ mean and start calling him _Lucky_ instead. Give _him_ a pet name." Lucy mumbled to herself. "Or something other than Lucky. What kind of pet names do you give someone named Lucas any way? I can't call him Lou because thats just retarded, Ca is...too much like caca."

Lois' lips twitched in utter amusement as she listened to Lucy's mind work. "Luscious?"

"_Ewwwww_." Lucy made up her face. "This _is_ Dunleavy we're talking about!"

"I think he's more than a littl good looking."

Lucy made a face at her. "He's Chloe's Number."

Lois paused, shocked to hear Lucy actually say that out loud. "So you figured that?"

"Of course I did." Lucy appeared utterly insulted at the very question. "I was just wondering, with comments like that and the closeness between you two, if _you_ did."

Lois wondered if Lucy realized that she very much sounded like she was telling Lois to back off.

Considering everything Lucy did every day to try and hinder Chloe and Lucas' relationship from growing romantic...

Then again, maybe Lucy just preferred Chloe with the devil she knew and not the devil she didn't, or in other words, Five.

She apparently had yet to forgive the boy for the 'lady' incident.

Entering the 7-Eleven despite the 'CLOSED' sign, Lois smiled at Abed, the owner of the shop, who was behind the counter gazing at a Hustler until he noticed them...and quickly hid the magazine. "Hey Abe."

"Lois, Lucy." He stood up quickly. "Thank you for being so prompt."

"No prob." Lucy reached the counter and leaned on it, eyeing him. "What's the 911?"

Lois smirked at her sister, who was learning much of her 'slang' from the many men who tried unsuccessfully to rob or assault her.

"Well, it might be nothing, but earlier this evening someone came in asking if I'd seen Chloe, had her picture and everything." Abed replied, frowning. "Of course I denied ever seeing her, but I don't know if he believed me."

Lois and Lucy's eyes narrowed, the older Lane speaking. "What did he look like?"

"Auburn hair, hazel eyes. So tall." Abed motioned with his hand. "Said she was his daughter."

Lucy gasped, bringing a hand to her mouth.

Lois' eyes widened further, unable to believe it.

Had Uncle Gabe made it out alive?

Had he come to Edge City?

Was he looking for them?

Or was this a horrible trap?

"You have security cameras in here, right Abed?" Lucy asked.

He nodded.

"Can we see this evening's taping?" Lois pressed, getting where her sister was going with this.

He nodded. "Of course, let me lock up the shop and I'll take you to the back."

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"Clark, we don't have any say in this, we're staying in someone else's home and, if Chloe trusts him, so should we." Martha sighed as she sat on the edge of what would now be her bed, next to her troubled son. "We don't have many options anyway, especially not now that your father..." her eyes teared up and she sniffled as she looked away, gathering courage from their joined hands, before looking at him once more. "We're safer here with another Number."

"He's so...slimy." Clark made a face. "What does Chloe see in him? I know she joked once that she was going to get with another Number and that she wasn't going to be interested in another human, but there has to be _another_ male Number out there, right? Someone _nicer_ than this guy?"

"_Clark_." Martha chided. "You saw the way Chloe was with him, she cares for him deeply, and if she does you're going to have to respect that and do your best to see what she sees in him. See him through her eyes."

"He made them sleep in their truck and then in seedy motels with registered sex offenders." Clark apparently couldn't let that go. "I don't care that they're defending him, perfectly innocent people defend their abusers all the time. Think of battered wives. Or Stockholm Syndrome."

Martha couldn't help but giggle at that, shaking her head in amusement as she raised her hand to caress her son's cheek. "Chloe would never be a battered wife."

Clark had to agree with that, nodding.

"Honey, you're just jealous."

Clark made a face at her, obviously disagreeing. "Mom, I love Chloe, I love her deeply, and yes, I admit that I've always had this connection and slight crush on her...but I'm not _in love_ with her. She's like a sister, or better yet, she's like a part of me. I feel like to protect myself I need to protect her. I always have."

"I meant you have _sibling jealousy_." Martha cleared for him. "Chloe has always been yours, even if not romantically. She's always been your best friend, yours to confide in, yours to save. She's always only looked up to you. And now you don't know how to react to the fact that she's showing interest and such in someone else. Especially to someone you don't particularly like or agree with. You don't feel comfortable with the fact that she's begun making a life for herself in which you weren't heavily involved."

Clark frowned. "Why didn't she tell us mom? About her being Lorien by heritage? Or that she was supposed to have something to do with this war?" His face fell slightly. "Didn't she trust us? Didn't she trust _me_?"

"Of _course_ she did honey." Martha drew Clark close in a deep hug, knowing he needed just as much comforting as she did right now, Chloe had always been his platonic soulmate and she understood that this must be hard for him. "Both you and Chloe are different now, changed, but you can use this to grow even stronger than you were before. You're both a part of the same thing, just like Lucas, and Lucy and Lois. Don't look at this as you losing Chloe, look at this as you gaining the three of them."

"Why do I feel like the father of a bride?" Clark groaned as he pulled away, giving him mother a somewhat amused look.

"I suppose because you're probably feeling something very similar to a father whose daughter is growing up and finding romance." Martha smiled at him. "If it's any consolation, Pa, your daughter's boyfriend seems to really care for her. You saw how he was when she nearly fainted. He actually reached her before you." She smirked. "And one of your Legacies is _speed_."

"Right. I had noticed that." Clark admitted with a sigh.

"Now I know this isn't going to be easy for any of us, and there are going to be a number of issues we'll have to work through, but it'll work out in the end." Martha promised him. "And if what they think is happening, and the other Numbers are somehow following Chloe here like we did, then..."

Clark sighed. "Things are about to become even more complicated."

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There was something very fishy about the Five issue.

Laying above the quilt, eyes on the blonde sleeping wrapped up, Lucas narrowed his eyes as he gazed at her.

If Five was her Number...shouldn't he have, uh, fought more about this situation? Lucas never would have allowed his girl to sleep in a bedroom with someone else, especially not someone of the opposite sex, especially not if she'd fainted or if they'd just recently been reunited. Despite the obvious lack of trust, mutual dislike, and jealousy Five sent his way, Lucas couldn't help but wonder if maybe he hadn't misread this whole thing with Chloe and Five. Now that he thought about it _really_ hard, not once had Chloe ever said that Five was her Number. She'd called him her best friend, said that he was the person she was closest to, and that she loved him. And yet Lucas knew Chloe enough to know that Chloe flung that word around. She loved ice cream. She loved the color green. She loved her (which were actually _his_) computers. She loved the girl at the little rundown restaurant around the block because she cooked 'the best' stewed beef 'ever'.

Maybe, just maybe, when Chloe had said she 'loved' Five, she hadn't exactly meant _romantically_.

When Lucas had seen her jump Five in the parking lot she'd kissed the Number's face...yet not his mouth.

Shouldn't there have been major-liplocking if they'd been lovers reunited?

Also, when Lucas had come home she'd left Five and come to _him_, touched _him_, worried about _him_.

His lips tilted in a smirk as he reached out and softly brushed hair out of her face.

Chloe groaned, eyelashes fluttering before her sleepy green eyes opened and focused on him. "Lucas?"

"You know, if you make this whole fainting thing a habit, I'm going to have to change your name from Lil Red to Sleeping Beauty." He warned, sitting up on the bed and giving her a lecherous little grin just to wake her up fully.

Her sense of self-preservation obviously kicked in as hoped, and she jolted up, eyes wide as she gazed down at her body.

Clothed body.

"Ouch, you wound me Red." He teased. "When I finally have you, you'll be conscious."

A delicious blush rose her neck as she turned to him. "Clark?"

His good mood took a blow. "With mommy I suppose. Lucy and Lois went to Abed's in your place to see what he wants."

Chloe seemed to be thinking something before she surprised him by lowering back into a laying position on the bed, wrapping up with the quilt to her chin and snuggling against his pillow. "I saw them again, you know."

He leaned hard against the bed head, eyeing her. "I figured."

"And I saw One's, Two's, and Three's crests as well." She frowned, turning slightly to get a better look at him. "Why do I keep seeing those crests? They don't have a Number anymore, shouldn't they be null and void?"

"I always saw you as being more connected to the _Crests_ than the Numbers." Lucas admitted. "I think even without the Numbers around your connection to the crests is present and you're still affecting them." He hugged his knees to his chest. "Maybe that's why they're under guard...or were they not guarded physically by Mogs this time?"

"They were." Chloe confirmed. "The Mogs...they ran and hid."

"Huh?" Lucas turned to her, any lingering thought about Five or her relationship with him momentarily wiped from his mind. "What do you _mean_ they ran and hid?"

"When the crests lit up they ducked and hid, almost as if scared of the light." A troubled expression was on her face. "And Eight was surrounded, about to be killed...but the light burnt the Mogs around her so much they collapsed in pain and gave her time to escape."

"That's something new." Lucas turned fully towards her, face serious.

"Not only that, but this time I _know_ they saw me too, like Clark said he saw me." Chloe's green gaze rose to meet his. "Four and Seven both tried talking to me, but I couldn't hear a word they were saying. It was as if they were on mute. Also, this time their crests levitated a little."

"It's stronger." Lucas realized, eyes widening. "You were touching Five and I while wearing our crests...maybe we acted like antennas or something for the signal and that's why it was more intense."

"Power in Numbers." Chloe whispered to herself before frowning. "But why? Why _me_? And what exactly am I doing?"

Lucas didn't know, couldn't answer.

And he hated it.

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"It doesn't make any sense." Lucy whispered in the dark room, pacing restlessly, refusing to even look in the direction of the monitor, where Uncle Gabe could be seen in the grainy image showing Abed a picture of Chloe. "How did he get out of there without getting caught? Where's Aunt Moira if he's fine? Where has he been all this while? Why has he only shown up _right now_ that Five and his mother arrived in the city?"

"There's too many coincidences." Lois whispered, sitting down in front of the image, staring at him. "Something's not right."

"Damn straight it's not right!" Lucy threw her hands in the air. "But what if somehow this isn't a trap and Uncle Gabe's somewhere in Edge City looking for us?"

"What are the odds of Dolly and Aunt Moira not escaping...but Uncle Gabe does?" Lois whispered.

"Very improbable." Lucy replied, running her hand through her hair. "Either they let him go to use as a way of finding us by tracking his every movement and coming at us the moment we make contact or...or..."

"Or that's not Uncle Gabe. Or they're controlling him." Lois covered her face with her hands. "What do we do?"

"What _can_ we do?" Lucy wanted to know. "We can't just _ignore_ the situation, not only is that Chloe's dad but even if it isn't, that person or thing would be working with the Mogadorians which means they've tracked us to Edge City and we're not safe anymore."

"What do we do?" Lois whispered the question once more, utterly lost and out of her depth.

"I don't know." Lucy's voice shook as she finally sat down next to her sister, just as vulnerable. "I just don't know."

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**Review?**


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